Page 51 of The Marriage Debt
‘His lordship is set on teaching me, so I thought it churlish to refuse.’
‘You’ll be all right with this beast then.’ John slapped the roan on its neck. ‘It’s like a sofa with legs.’
‘Good,’ Katherine breathed, then followed John’s gaze to where Theo had mounted the grey which was doing its level best to unseat him. ‘He’s a good rider, isn’t he?’
‘That’s an understatement,’ the groom agreed. ‘Bloody hell! Sorry, Miss Katherine, but did you see what that brute just tried?’ They watched in silence until the grey subsided and stood, its neck flecked with sweat, its ears flicking back to listen to what Theo was saying to it.
This appeared to be a lively description of its habits and character delivered in a style which had the audience of grooms cackling in appreciation. Katherine closed her ears firmly to the several choice adjectives and waited patiently. Hopefully he would feel he had had sufficient challenges for the day andwould decide against teaching her to ride. But no. Theo swung down, tossed the reins back to the reluctant stable boy and walked over.
‘John, will you have a word with Durren and get me something else saddled up? That’s not a safe animal to take out with her ladyship.’ He watched the groom make his way across the yard and remarked, ‘Good man that. Now then, we’ll get you up.’
Katherine managed a bright smile. ‘How?’
‘I’ll give you a leg up. Now stand like this, and hold the reins like that…’ He patiently sorted the reins out for her then cupped his hands. ‘Right foot in here. One, two, three, up.’
Katherine found herself seated sideways on a moving, slippery surface. ‘Now then, you put this foot in the stirrup. Hold on, just let me lengthen it a little.’ Competent hands moved against her leg, doing something, then her foot was pushed into a stirrup. ‘Now, the other leg goes here, over one pommel and under the other. Yes, like that. Now shift so you are sitting square on the saddle. From behind it ought to look as though you could have a leg on either side.’
How she was remaining on top of the horse and not on her back on the cobbles, Katherine had no idea. The horse was moving, just a little, but enough to make her feel quite unsettled, the saddle was slippery under the folds of cloth and the position Theo’s hands were turning her into felt completely unnatural.
‘Is the habit smooth between you and the saddle? It will be uncomfortable otherwise. Just stand in the stirrup and let me tug at the skirt. Good.’ He broke off and looked at her face. ‘Kat, what is it? You are stiff as a board. Is it that I am touching you? I’m sorry, only it is very difficult to explain without doing so.’
‘No, not that.Oh.’ The horse shifted, apparently taking the weight off one hind leg and Katherine lurched. Theo grabbed her and thumped the horse which straightened up with an affrontedsnort. ‘It is so high up,’ she finished lamely.
‘High up? We’ve got beds which are higher up than this.’ Realisation dawned and Katherine saw his face relax into rueful apology. ‘Kat, are you scared of horses?’
‘Yes. I am very sorry.’
‘Why did you not say?’
‘I thought you would think me feeble.’ If only he would stop looking like that: so understanding and gentle and…
‘I know how brave you are, Kat, I would never think you feeble. Would you like to get down now and I will have a carriage put to instead?’
Suddenly that was the last thing she wanted. ‘Not if you think I can do this.’
‘Very well. Now sit up straight, hold the reins as I showed you, keep your heel down and off we go.’ He began to lead the horse around the yard. Katherine held her breath but it did not break into a gallop, rear, buck or do anything that the grey had done. In fact it plodded. ‘Good. You see? Quite safe. Now just wait there and I’ll see what Durren has found for me.’ Theo let go of the bridle and strode off to where the head groom was waiting with a leggy black gelding.
Katherine gave a squeak of alarm but the misnamed Lightning merely stood where he had been left.
‘Lift your hands a little,’ Theo said, bringing the black up alongside. ‘Just so you can feel his mouth and he knows you are in charge.’ He spoke without any apparent irony. ‘Then press your heel back into his flank and say “Walk on”.’
Convinced that the horse was about to bolt, Katherine tentatively did as she was told and to her amazement the roan began to walk sedately forward. ‘Oh,’ she said, pleased, then ‘Oh!’ as she began to slip sideways.
‘Press down in the stirrup, sit up straight – there, excellent.’
They walked out of the yard and down the carriage drive,Theo maintaining a steady flow of reassuring comment and instruction. Katherine had expected him to be demanding, perhaps critical, but his encouragement reminded her of the way he had been in the prison cell.
She risked looking at him. He was smiling at her and it suddenly the most natural thing in the world to smile back.
‘Enjoying yourself, Kat?’
‘Why… yes,’ she admitted, surprised. ‘I thought I would be terrified – for the three seconds it took me to fall off. We are not going to go any faster are we?’
‘Not unless you want to,’ Theo said.
‘Doesn’t your horse want to?’ Katherine eyed the twitching ears and the playful sidle the black kept employing.
‘He wants to gallop and it will do him good to learn to walk when he’s told to.’
